Saturday, July 5, 2008

Calif Greens Oppose Proposition 7 Green Initiative

Proposition 7, a California initiative to mandate utilities to generate minimum levels of electricity from renewable sources has environmental groups teaming up with their long-time enemies -- power companies -- to defeat it.

Is this a case of a badly written initiative or are the greens in a snit because an outsider has walked in and stolen their thunder with a measure that the environmental groups can't grab political credit for themselves?

"'It's kind of like I'm uniting every warring group in the state', said Jim Gonzalez, the former San Francisco supervisor who's behind Proposition 7, the Solar and Clean Energy Act of 2008.

"The measure requires all California utilities to generate at least half their power from alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal by 2025, well above the 33 percent level Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to see by 2020. Utilities currently must reach a 20 percent goal by 2010.

"'This does no harm to the environment and only toughens up the rules we have now,' Gonzalez said."

The Chronicle pointed out that environmental groups such as the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), had been working on energy legislation for a long time, but had not been consulted by the Prop 7 sponsors.

"There was very late consultation," said NRDC's Ralph Cavanaugh in the Chron article "We asked them last November to step back and take a look at the measure, but by then they already had a finished product."

"The initiative sets up such a detailed plan for dealing with renewable energy and siting and building the new, greener power plants that it opens the way for many unintended consequences, Cavanaugh said. "If you're going to legislate at the ballot box, keep it simple, don't write 70 pages," he added. "Our objection isn't to their good intentions, but to their bad initiative.

"But is that the real issue? Cavanaugh gives no details on why the initiative is "bad" nor why 70 pages is necessarily a reason to oppose the measure.

3 comments:

I just read your post on the NRDC and the green groups opposing the solar bill. The story is not their bitterness, but the funding these groups get from Sempra, PG&E, and Southern Cali Edison.

Over the last few months we have seen so-called environmentalists and other organizations that have nothing to do with energy policy for some reason feeling they have to speak out against renewable energy efforts at the city, state, and federal level.

Groups like the Greenlining, California League of Conservation Voters, and the California League of Cities have come out against Proposition 7 – the Solar and Clean Energy Act. These groups have received donations in excess of $500,000 over the last few years.

Some of these groups like CLCV, Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Techonologies (CEERT) even have former energy/utility executives sitting on their boards! NRDC's Ralph Cavanagh has a very close relationship with the energy industry and always takes their side.

PG&E, Sempra Energy, and Southern California Edison are all engaged in this practice. I have more back up info and data, links, etc if you are interested.

I would be glad to provide you the references and links. A lot of it I found digging through Nexis and other data filed with the Secretary of State's office. Email at Cleanupcleanenergy@gmail and let me know where to forward the information.

You are both right on. It's a combination of ego and finances. Prop. 7 is a threat to the business and corporate status quo over individual consumers. It threatens their profits. It is also a threat to the authority and status quo of environmentalist groups over their members and citizen population they supposedly work for. It is a threat to their ability and establishment.

Good job pointing out the details to both. I will pass this along to many many people as a source of honest information.

Like most Americans my political beliefs do not follow a party platform.

I believe that a connection to reality is vital and all-too-often missing from the political drones and droids that control the American political landscape.

And like most Americans, I am liberal on some issues and conservative on others.

As a former journalist and university journalism instructor, I am equally offended by the Keith Olbermanns on the left hand and Ann Coulters on the right.

They and their brothers and sisters rant and rouse rabble but rarely rise above the banal. They are demagogues of different stripes: equally annoying, equally flaky and equally useless for making an informed decision.

I am not interested in getting some "journalist's" opinion. I am interested in facts, context and a complete and unbiased picture -- an increasingly scarce commodity.

Like most Americans, I am in nobody's political bag and will never be put into one. That means I cannot be taken for granted.